It's not setup yet. Summer Nights end Sept 2 then the skeletons come out.
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All things Knotts Berry Farm
- Thread starter Phroobar
- Start date
jmuboy
Well-Known Member
Just curious with the very very slow opening of the new Camp Snoopy elements. Did the marquee ever arrive on the stagecoach track over the atea’s entrance? And did the Snoopy canoe ever return to some part of the area? Any updates on if the “Woodstock air mail “ ride will ever return?
I'll let you know tomorrow. I'm at Haunt tonight.
MK-fan
Well-Known Member
I went last Thursday and still no marquee, no Snoopy canoe and haven’t heard anything on Woodstock’s Airmail. It’s too bad this new Camp Snoopy got its budget slashed. No new promising Camp Snoopy Theater or new character meet areas by the waterfall, no post office area, wonder why so much was cut and delayed, what a shame.
AJFireman
Well-Known Member
I was there Tuesday Night. The Marquee was not up and the other two i didn't notice but wasn't really looking.
During dress rehearsal for Scary Farm on Tuesday Night all the lights where on in Camp Snoopy. I do hope they make a change because it was too bright even the strung lights for the picnic area were on. It will be interesting to see if changes are made or how the Gauntlet adapts. I watched a lot more interactions with guest using their characters so that made it fun.
Both new mazes where well done but I liked Widows more. No attempt at a preshow so thats good. They definitley need to make changes to line management in back stage area. Eight Fingers Nine was not as popular as to not create a long line but it could be because its in the back and out of the way. Once its open to the public it will be very crowded back there. Eight Fingers Nine the entrance and exit is at the same doorway so when you exit you have to go all the way around the line to get back to the main area.
I dont recall it as much in previous years but Associates managing lines where interacting with guest giving them info about the Mazes and hyping it up while pulsing the line. Grimoire is still a mess and needs to go but I know its still early in its life cycle. No videos on the screens in line but there is new audio while walking into the campsite but you are not there long enough to hear it all to set it up. Light pollution in the back is still there they did combat it in one area with bright lights shining against the wall that did help. Room 13 still had its dead areas and some areas where monsters where previously within props are now mannequins possibly to spread out talent.
During dress rehearsal for Scary Farm on Tuesday Night all the lights where on in Camp Snoopy. I do hope they make a change because it was too bright even the strung lights for the picnic area were on. It will be interesting to see if changes are made or how the Gauntlet adapts. I watched a lot more interactions with guest using their characters so that made it fun.
Both new mazes where well done but I liked Widows more. No attempt at a preshow so thats good. They definitley need to make changes to line management in back stage area. Eight Fingers Nine was not as popular as to not create a long line but it could be because its in the back and out of the way. Once its open to the public it will be very crowded back there. Eight Fingers Nine the entrance and exit is at the same doorway so when you exit you have to go all the way around the line to get back to the main area.
I dont recall it as much in previous years but Associates managing lines where interacting with guest giving them info about the Mazes and hyping it up while pulsing the line. Grimoire is still a mess and needs to go but I know its still early in its life cycle. No videos on the screens in line but there is new audio while walking into the campsite but you are not there long enough to hear it all to set it up. Light pollution in the back is still there they did combat it in one area with bright lights shining against the wall that did help. Room 13 still had its dead areas and some areas where monsters where previously within props are now mannequins possibly to spread out talent.
I have a feeling that they couldn't get it finished before Haunt so they put it to sleep. The exit to Chilling Chambers is there and it would be difficult to have a construction zone there. I have a picture of large building supports in that area. Maybe we will see it next year along with Montazooma's reopening?
As for the marquee, how long have we been waiting for Tomorrowland's new entrance? They had to refresh the picture because it was so sun faded. It is still coming. Why put a Snoopy statue out there holding nothing?
PiratesMansion
Well-Known Member
Giving "slightly classier than 2018 Pizza Planet signage" vibes, which is not exactly a good metric to be reaching for IMO.
Widows was a fun too but not as good. The Hanging centered around Six Flags buying Cedar Fair and a Chat bot. Disney gets hit really hard. No national politic references. Sitting next to youtubers during the show is extremely annoying. Dude it isn't that funny. Good Lincoln vs Walt robot boss fight being called yet another D23 lie. Murphy is a boy dragon as Donkey finds out.
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MK-fan
Well-Known Member
I just would like to throw my two cents out there. I just recently got season passes for Knott’s, it’s been five years since me and my family have visited the park. The park is a great value for the price of a season pass, the best value in SoCal IMO. Upon these last two visits that we went to the park, certain things have bothered me and I can’t help but fell like the great progress that Knott’s has been making over the last 10+ years has been slowly beginning to peak.
In the last couple of years, we have seen the closures of two iconic shows at Knott’s, Mystery Lodge and the Wild West Stunt Show. I’ve heard the rumors of the Lodge not having proper parts for the projections but even then, that is a pretty sorry excuse to not try everything to get it fixed or put on a new show. I’ve also heard maybe the Wild West show was canceled due to the gun use but not Knott’s still heavily sells toy guns, has a gun shop and has two bank robbers with guns rob the train each ride so I doubt that’s the issue.
This is not a big deal but a couple of years ago, a drunk driver crashed into the sign and damaged the sign and management decided to board up the sign all together. To this day, there is still no theme park logo signage. That’s some lazy upkeep right there. Also, the front entrance to the park has no real identity, some of the props are boarded up and the water tower no longer has the dancers spin or any water features. Most of it always gets covered up anyway during their seasonal and promotional events with tons of decor. Hopefully this gets worked on in the future. I know these things are not major but sometimes it’s the little things that matter.
Other things that have bothered me is bag check because it seems to me that security is pretty lenient with their bag operations. The last two times, they didn’t even check our baby bag. This irks me because there should be no bag ever left unchecked when entering a theme park in today’s world.
Ride operations are pretty awful at Knott’s with lines for rides being unnecessarily long from the slow load and unload process. I know safety should always come first but the staff just seems to really, really take their time. This is nothing new and has always been an issue at Knott’s, but it’s something that should definitely be improved given that weekends can be pretty busy throughout the year. The worst offender is Knott’s Bear-y Tales, the ride constantly shuts down and the load/unload process is the worst I’ve ever seen. Given that there is only two loading docks, I understand but there is enough room to reconfigure the loading zone to have four loading docks and would help cut the wait time in half. The last three times I’ve waited in line for this, it has always shut down. Management tells me that the screens are connected to the internet and the internet goes down often, which is why the ride goes down often. That’s a terrible technical flaw in my book.
Other things that have bothered me is overpromising and underperforming over the last couple of years. Fiesta Village received a nice refurb but it was all built around the new Montezooma’s Revenge Forbidden Fortress attraction which didn’t open with it or since. I know they had issues with the manufacturer but for the process to take 2+ years to try and fix is overkill. We have a 2025 reopening year but we will see if that actually happens. The other project that dropped the ball was the new Camp Snoopy which opened this year. The land looks more awful now than it did before it got the refurb. Many things which were promised did not come to fruition and whether the majority of it was canceled due to the budget cuts or if they just need more time to get it all open remains to be soon.
Knott’s Berry Farm is the crown jewel of Cedar Fair and the 11th most visited park in the US, only behind Disney, Universal and Seaworld Orlando. This park is Cedar Fair’s money maker and they should be tending to this park the most. I just can’t help but think the park is going to go into a downward spiral the likes of which we saw from 1998-2012 when Cedar Fair could care less about what they were doing to the park and with the Six Flags merger this year, who knows if it’s a good or bad thing.
What are your opinions on the direction Knott’s has been going over the past couple of years?
In the last couple of years, we have seen the closures of two iconic shows at Knott’s, Mystery Lodge and the Wild West Stunt Show. I’ve heard the rumors of the Lodge not having proper parts for the projections but even then, that is a pretty sorry excuse to not try everything to get it fixed or put on a new show. I’ve also heard maybe the Wild West show was canceled due to the gun use but not Knott’s still heavily sells toy guns, has a gun shop and has two bank robbers with guns rob the train each ride so I doubt that’s the issue.
This is not a big deal but a couple of years ago, a drunk driver crashed into the sign and damaged the sign and management decided to board up the sign all together. To this day, there is still no theme park logo signage. That’s some lazy upkeep right there. Also, the front entrance to the park has no real identity, some of the props are boarded up and the water tower no longer has the dancers spin or any water features. Most of it always gets covered up anyway during their seasonal and promotional events with tons of decor. Hopefully this gets worked on in the future. I know these things are not major but sometimes it’s the little things that matter.
Other things that have bothered me is bag check because it seems to me that security is pretty lenient with their bag operations. The last two times, they didn’t even check our baby bag. This irks me because there should be no bag ever left unchecked when entering a theme park in today’s world.
Ride operations are pretty awful at Knott’s with lines for rides being unnecessarily long from the slow load and unload process. I know safety should always come first but the staff just seems to really, really take their time. This is nothing new and has always been an issue at Knott’s, but it’s something that should definitely be improved given that weekends can be pretty busy throughout the year. The worst offender is Knott’s Bear-y Tales, the ride constantly shuts down and the load/unload process is the worst I’ve ever seen. Given that there is only two loading docks, I understand but there is enough room to reconfigure the loading zone to have four loading docks and would help cut the wait time in half. The last three times I’ve waited in line for this, it has always shut down. Management tells me that the screens are connected to the internet and the internet goes down often, which is why the ride goes down often. That’s a terrible technical flaw in my book.
Other things that have bothered me is overpromising and underperforming over the last couple of years. Fiesta Village received a nice refurb but it was all built around the new Montezooma’s Revenge Forbidden Fortress attraction which didn’t open with it or since. I know they had issues with the manufacturer but for the process to take 2+ years to try and fix is overkill. We have a 2025 reopening year but we will see if that actually happens. The other project that dropped the ball was the new Camp Snoopy which opened this year. The land looks more awful now than it did before it got the refurb. Many things which were promised did not come to fruition and whether the majority of it was canceled due to the budget cuts or if they just need more time to get it all open remains to be soon.
Knott’s Berry Farm is the crown jewel of Cedar Fair and the 11th most visited park in the US, only behind Disney, Universal and Seaworld Orlando. This park is Cedar Fair’s money maker and they should be tending to this park the most. I just can’t help but think the park is going to go into a downward spiral the likes of which we saw from 1998-2012 when Cedar Fair could care less about what they were doing to the park and with the Six Flags merger this year, who knows if it’s a good or bad thing.
What are your opinions on the direction Knott’s has been going over the past couple of years?
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Epcot81Fan
Well-Known Member
For me, when they put that horrendous sea of concrete in the Boardwalk area they entered into Six Flags territory.
To think that area was once the wonderful and energetic Roaring 20’s Airfield to what it is now is just heartbreaking to witness.
To think that area was once the wonderful and energetic Roaring 20’s Airfield to what it is now is just heartbreaking to witness.
Nirya
Well-Known Member
Time for a review of the Grandaddy of Them All, Knotts Scary Farm. Gonna do the review in the same style as the Universal HHN one. Up front, I'll say we did not do any shows or rides, and didn't pay for the Fright Lane (I think if we did we would have done those but by the time we finished the last maze my girlfriend was about done, and she already doesn't do roller coasters to begin with).
Overall
I think Scary Farm is in a transition spot at the moment. This is not to say it is bad - the event overall was quite good and had a lot of energy throughout - but the Knotts style of only replacing a few mazes each year is leaving a lineup that is starting to show its age in a few spots, with some troublesome mazes still needing plenty of work to improve. But considering how good the two new mazes were, I think there is a good chance that Knotts goes into the next few years with a vastly improved lineup overall.
Scare Zones
What I love about Knotts is how much effort they put into the zones. And I'm not talking about sets or stuff like that - Ghost Town is literally just filled with fog while CarnEVIL just has the clowns walking around - but the effort that the scare actors put into their performances makes everything that much better. We had multiple fun interactions with the clowns, some good moments in Goreing 20s, and I even felt The Gauntlet was much improved compared to last year (really enjoyed watching the king hold court). This felt like the first time in years that all the scare zones were operating at peak performance, which is exactly what you want to see and gives Knotts a great baseline to build from in other areas.
I'll throw a quick aside about The Hanging, because I did watch the show online, but I think I've reached the point where it's just not for me. I'm not saying get rid of it, but the show is so rote at this point that a more clever show could take advantage of it. That's not this show, though - you come for some passable fight choreography and bad jokes, and to see who gets hung.
Mazes
(Going in order we did the mazes)
Wax Works - One of the two departing mazes, I understand why they're making the change here but still sad about it. The maze was definitely starting to show its age, and it seemed they went for a darker lighting package this year either to save a few dollars or to heighten the dread, but this is still a solid maze and probably an upper-tier maze among the lineup. Between Wax Works and Trick or Treat prior, this spot has been a major highlight point for close to a decade now, so it will be interesting to see what they decide to put here next.
Widows - So after watching the Scary Farm announcement trailer, I figured Eight Fingers Nine was getting the premium maze placement where The Depths had been while Widows was going to go in the back spot where Dark Entities was. I was basing this off the effort they put into the Eight Fingers Nine announcement, while the Widows one seems more thrown together and lower concept. So imagine my surprise when I saw that Widows got the premium placement instead. Expectations for this maze went way up at that point, and I'm happy to say they succeeded.
What I love about Widows is that it took the initial concept - a nursing home for widows that has become overrun by spiders - and took that concept as extreme as possible. If the spiders are sentient enough to take over the bodies of the women they're killing, then of course there's also more of them, and of course, they have a Spider Queen and all that. The set design took the creepiness of a run-down nursing home and seamlessly transitioned it into a cave system and eventual spider temple, and the maze never made it feel like it was a bridge too far. It is just an excellent maze that raised the bar for what we'll see in the future.
Eight Fingers Nine - Speaking of raising the bar, the other new maze was also really good! I'm a sucker for period settings in general, so the maze already was going to get a baseline good grade from me, but I really loved how omnipresent the Boogeyman was in this maze. Sometimes we get mazes like this where the monster only shows up a few times, but in this one we got the Boogeyman in almost every maze, and that made his whole thing feel overwhelming in a positive way. I do think the story kind of falls apart near the end, as if they were looking for stuff to fill out the maze and decided on Boogeyman cult in the woods, but that doesn't take away from another really solid maze.
Bloodline 1842 - I don't have the time or energy to take apart this maze, especially since this was the other maze announced to be leaving this year. Like I said last year, the maze was clearly designed for the shooting gimmick, and removing it only served to highlight how weak the maze was. Maybe they'll revisit the steampunk vampire concept down the line because I don't think that was the problem, just the execution.
Room 13 - I should like everything about Room 13; it's a period piece that acts to advance the story of the Goreing 20s area, and its a unique setting for a maze. It just...doesn't work. I don't know what I would do to fix this maze, maybe doing more serial killer stuff in it or something, but this maze just needs work that I don't think it's going to get compared to some of the other places.
Mesmer - I love this maze, but it's starting to show its age. We hit it during an apparent shift change, which left the maze pretty empty and allowed us to take in more of the scenery, and on that front the maze still mostly delivers, playing on psychological horror more than actual gore, and the setting of a magic show gone wrong still fits well in this area. I imagine this maze is leaving after next year, so enjoy it while you can.
Cinema Slasher - I thought this maze was pretty good last year, but my experience this year really highlighted that the maze has some solid scares throughout. The theater scenes had some really effective scare actors who caused the group in front of us to run screaming, while the Camp Gonnagetcha scene had an excellent actor who was able to scare one group three different ways due to his setup. I literally watched a lady scared so badly that she ran into a wall to try and get away from a monster and needed to be helped up. I don't know if this one was new this year, but there was also a monster dressed as a projector that felt so out of place that I couldn't help but think it was the best part of the maze. I'm hoping they continue to improve and iterate on this maze and turn into something truly great instead of just pretty good.
Origins: The Curse of Calico - Still the headliner, but this might have been the year I turned on this maze and started to think about what the endgame is going to be here. Origins is designed for someone like me, with plenty of nods to Knotts history throughout and acting as an origin story for the entire Scary Farm concept, but my girlfriend doesn't have the same connection to the park (she's from Minnesota, it can't be helped) and thus did not enjoy the maze nearly as much as I did. That's not to say she did not enjoy the maze at all - Origins is still an excellent maze with some fantastic set pieces like the streets of Calico and the Green Witch flying around in the end - but at this point I am starting to wonder how much of a lifespan this maze has left. The problem is there are other mazes that really could use a refresh or replacement sooner than this one, so we may have Origins for a few more years.
The Grimoire - I think we may be nearing the end of this one, but not for lack of trying. The videos in the queue were not playing (though the audio was), the opening has been cut almost entirely, and the entire thing just lacked energy in parts. That said, this was the one maze my girlfriend actually figured out the story for while walking through it, so maybe this maze got better at telling its story to guests. Either way, I feel this maze is near the chopping block sooner than later.
The Chilling Chambers - Ok, I see now where the complaints about this maze are coming from. Don't get me wrong - I love the idea of this maze and revisiting some excellent mazes from the past is a great idea, but I think for this maze to really work in future years, they have to change the scenes on a yearly or two-year basis. I figured this was the initial plan when they added a third new maze last year, and that Chilling Chambers would be getting frequent updates, but this was generally the same maze as last year. It's a great idea, but needs some execution changes to truly shine.
I know the maze reviews in general seem pretty negative, but overall the entirety of the mazes were pretty good. I had my girlfriend, a haunt newbie, compare Knotts to Universal, and she felt that Knotts blew Universal out of the water. She loved how much more interactive the entire event was compared to Universal, and appreciated the storytelling and character work of the scare actors. I think the biggest compliment she gave was that she was willing to come back next year, whereas with Universal she'll only go if told the event is good. That feels like high praise, and while I would not say this was the strongest outing Knotts has had since I started going to the haunt two decades ago (good lord when did I become so old...) it was still a solid outing that has some great stuff to build on going forward.
Overall
I think Scary Farm is in a transition spot at the moment. This is not to say it is bad - the event overall was quite good and had a lot of energy throughout - but the Knotts style of only replacing a few mazes each year is leaving a lineup that is starting to show its age in a few spots, with some troublesome mazes still needing plenty of work to improve. But considering how good the two new mazes were, I think there is a good chance that Knotts goes into the next few years with a vastly improved lineup overall.
Scare Zones
What I love about Knotts is how much effort they put into the zones. And I'm not talking about sets or stuff like that - Ghost Town is literally just filled with fog while CarnEVIL just has the clowns walking around - but the effort that the scare actors put into their performances makes everything that much better. We had multiple fun interactions with the clowns, some good moments in Goreing 20s, and I even felt The Gauntlet was much improved compared to last year (really enjoyed watching the king hold court). This felt like the first time in years that all the scare zones were operating at peak performance, which is exactly what you want to see and gives Knotts a great baseline to build from in other areas.
I'll throw a quick aside about The Hanging, because I did watch the show online, but I think I've reached the point where it's just not for me. I'm not saying get rid of it, but the show is so rote at this point that a more clever show could take advantage of it. That's not this show, though - you come for some passable fight choreography and bad jokes, and to see who gets hung.
Mazes
(Going in order we did the mazes)
Wax Works - One of the two departing mazes, I understand why they're making the change here but still sad about it. The maze was definitely starting to show its age, and it seemed they went for a darker lighting package this year either to save a few dollars or to heighten the dread, but this is still a solid maze and probably an upper-tier maze among the lineup. Between Wax Works and Trick or Treat prior, this spot has been a major highlight point for close to a decade now, so it will be interesting to see what they decide to put here next.
Widows - So after watching the Scary Farm announcement trailer, I figured Eight Fingers Nine was getting the premium maze placement where The Depths had been while Widows was going to go in the back spot where Dark Entities was. I was basing this off the effort they put into the Eight Fingers Nine announcement, while the Widows one seems more thrown together and lower concept. So imagine my surprise when I saw that Widows got the premium placement instead. Expectations for this maze went way up at that point, and I'm happy to say they succeeded.
What I love about Widows is that it took the initial concept - a nursing home for widows that has become overrun by spiders - and took that concept as extreme as possible. If the spiders are sentient enough to take over the bodies of the women they're killing, then of course there's also more of them, and of course, they have a Spider Queen and all that. The set design took the creepiness of a run-down nursing home and seamlessly transitioned it into a cave system and eventual spider temple, and the maze never made it feel like it was a bridge too far. It is just an excellent maze that raised the bar for what we'll see in the future.
Eight Fingers Nine - Speaking of raising the bar, the other new maze was also really good! I'm a sucker for period settings in general, so the maze already was going to get a baseline good grade from me, but I really loved how omnipresent the Boogeyman was in this maze. Sometimes we get mazes like this where the monster only shows up a few times, but in this one we got the Boogeyman in almost every maze, and that made his whole thing feel overwhelming in a positive way. I do think the story kind of falls apart near the end, as if they were looking for stuff to fill out the maze and decided on Boogeyman cult in the woods, but that doesn't take away from another really solid maze.
Bloodline 1842 - I don't have the time or energy to take apart this maze, especially since this was the other maze announced to be leaving this year. Like I said last year, the maze was clearly designed for the shooting gimmick, and removing it only served to highlight how weak the maze was. Maybe they'll revisit the steampunk vampire concept down the line because I don't think that was the problem, just the execution.
Room 13 - I should like everything about Room 13; it's a period piece that acts to advance the story of the Goreing 20s area, and its a unique setting for a maze. It just...doesn't work. I don't know what I would do to fix this maze, maybe doing more serial killer stuff in it or something, but this maze just needs work that I don't think it's going to get compared to some of the other places.
Mesmer - I love this maze, but it's starting to show its age. We hit it during an apparent shift change, which left the maze pretty empty and allowed us to take in more of the scenery, and on that front the maze still mostly delivers, playing on psychological horror more than actual gore, and the setting of a magic show gone wrong still fits well in this area. I imagine this maze is leaving after next year, so enjoy it while you can.
Cinema Slasher - I thought this maze was pretty good last year, but my experience this year really highlighted that the maze has some solid scares throughout. The theater scenes had some really effective scare actors who caused the group in front of us to run screaming, while the Camp Gonnagetcha scene had an excellent actor who was able to scare one group three different ways due to his setup. I literally watched a lady scared so badly that she ran into a wall to try and get away from a monster and needed to be helped up. I don't know if this one was new this year, but there was also a monster dressed as a projector that felt so out of place that I couldn't help but think it was the best part of the maze. I'm hoping they continue to improve and iterate on this maze and turn into something truly great instead of just pretty good.
Origins: The Curse of Calico - Still the headliner, but this might have been the year I turned on this maze and started to think about what the endgame is going to be here. Origins is designed for someone like me, with plenty of nods to Knotts history throughout and acting as an origin story for the entire Scary Farm concept, but my girlfriend doesn't have the same connection to the park (she's from Minnesota, it can't be helped) and thus did not enjoy the maze nearly as much as I did. That's not to say she did not enjoy the maze at all - Origins is still an excellent maze with some fantastic set pieces like the streets of Calico and the Green Witch flying around in the end - but at this point I am starting to wonder how much of a lifespan this maze has left. The problem is there are other mazes that really could use a refresh or replacement sooner than this one, so we may have Origins for a few more years.
The Grimoire - I think we may be nearing the end of this one, but not for lack of trying. The videos in the queue were not playing (though the audio was), the opening has been cut almost entirely, and the entire thing just lacked energy in parts. That said, this was the one maze my girlfriend actually figured out the story for while walking through it, so maybe this maze got better at telling its story to guests. Either way, I feel this maze is near the chopping block sooner than later.
The Chilling Chambers - Ok, I see now where the complaints about this maze are coming from. Don't get me wrong - I love the idea of this maze and revisiting some excellent mazes from the past is a great idea, but I think for this maze to really work in future years, they have to change the scenes on a yearly or two-year basis. I figured this was the initial plan when they added a third new maze last year, and that Chilling Chambers would be getting frequent updates, but this was generally the same maze as last year. It's a great idea, but needs some execution changes to truly shine.
I know the maze reviews in general seem pretty negative, but overall the entirety of the mazes were pretty good. I had my girlfriend, a haunt newbie, compare Knotts to Universal, and she felt that Knotts blew Universal out of the water. She loved how much more interactive the entire event was compared to Universal, and appreciated the storytelling and character work of the scare actors. I think the biggest compliment she gave was that she was willing to come back next year, whereas with Universal she'll only go if told the event is good. That feels like high praise, and while I would not say this was the strongest outing Knotts has had since I started going to the haunt two decades ago (good lord when did I become so old...) it was still a solid outing that has some great stuff to build on going forward.
StarWarsGirl
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- No
I just went to Knott's for the first time. I've visited quite a few other parks in various states. Knott's is pretty on par with the industry. Most places just have you walk through a scanner with your bags and only check if the scanner alerts them.
Disneyland drives me absolutely crazy with their security. I'd be more concerned about the amount of people who are there outside of security. To me, that's a bigger security risk. It's all security theater at the end of the day, though.
StarWarsGirl
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- No
I only just went, but I was seriously impressed. The theming was amazing. The ghost town theming was like they took the Frontierland concept and just ran with it. Timber Mountain Log ride was so cool, as was the mine ride. I liked the Mexican themed area as well. Wasn't as wild about the Boardwalk themed area, but I enjoyed the roller coasters.
I loved the little historical details that were included in the parks. The information about mining in California, the stage coaches, etc. The one country band was playing while I was there, and they were very good.
I went on a weekday, so not all the entertainment was available, which was understandable given the low crowds. I wanted to mostly do rides. That's also why I didn't do the Halloween event.
Staff was also great. Knew what they were doing, ran those rides like well-oiled machines, super friendly.
Season pass prices really weren't bad. I pay $230 for my pass to Hersheypark back east. Mind you, that does include a separate parking lot, an all season drink plan, free bring a friend tickets, and access to the water park, but the Knott's passes are bargains. And Knott's is year round whereas Hershey is open nine months out of the year.
Take from that what you will, but that's a first time's perspective, and a regular Disney visitor at that.
Funny because Knott's Ghost Town is older. Walter Knott built a replica of a western ghost town in 1940. It was used to entertain guests as they waited to be seated for their chicken dinner. That was the beginning of the theme park. The Calico Mine opened in 1960 and had the first hidden queue that Walt Disney though was a great idea. Timer Mountain predates Splash Mountain by twenty years.
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